Could you solve this case study and become a big winner?

The young engineers in the Institute of Corrosion’s Young Engineer Programme are an innovative bunch. There was no way that the coronavirus lockdown and curtailing of mass gatherings was going to stop them in their tracks.

Instead of in the elegant Royal Over-Seas League club in London, these intrepid young engineers gathered around their computer screens at home to learn of the 2020 Case Study that will be used to determine which group of young engineers will be the winners of this year’s star prize. It was the first time that an ICorr Young Engineers group had met online, but was so successful that it is unlikely to be the last.

2018’s Winning Young Engineers group whet appetites for success

With an appraisal of their winning case study from 2018, Caroline Allanach, Danny Burkle and Tim Evans whet the appetites for success of the young engineers in attendance online during the evening.

The insight they provided as to how they approached their task, and a critical assessment of their reaction and solution to the failure that occurred was both informative and entertaining. So, too, was their description of the prize they won – a tremendous trip to the 2019 NACE Conference in Nashville.

A corrosion conundrum is this year’s case study

There are seven participating groups in this year’s Young Engineer Programme case study, and they have been given quite a conundrum to unravel.

The case study was presented by Steve Paterson, from Arbeadie Consultants Ltd., who has a career of corrosion experience to draw on. He hasn’t made it easy for this year’s programme participants. Here is the scenario he has set:

Several leaks have been identified in the titanium piping in an onshore desalination plant

This plant is used to remove salts from mono-ethylene glycol

The plant is also used for hydration and corrosion control in gas pipelines from three offshore fields

At the end of the presentation, the 32 young engineers were posed with the problems they must work to overcome, which include:

How to perform a corrosion risk assessment to determine that the plant is safe to operate

Recommending alternative materials to use

Identifying what mitigation options could be used to prolong the life of this section of the desalination plant

Identifying the root cause of the corrosion

Online meetings can get lively!

The young engineers in this year’s intake come from 19 companies, and their specialities include mechanical and materials engineering, welding, materials, and more. With such diversity, you might expect a lively meeting when in a meeting room. It was hard to know what to expect online, though.

The discussions that followed the presentation of the case study proved that no matter how we get together, when there’s an interesting and provocative scenario put forward, online events can be just as lively as in-person meetings.

The range of experience and specialties were certainly put to the test, and the question and answer session proved to be the first opportunity for ideas and complexities to be explored.

In brief, a fruitful, useful and exciting meeting, aptly brought to a close by Trevor Osborne, a past President of the Institute of Corrosion, and Managing Director of Deepwater Corrosion services (UK) Ltd.

The big wait begins!

And so, the big wait begins. It will be several months before we learn which group of young engineers will be this year’s winner.

The groups now undertake further investigation, collaborating behind the scenes and aided by four more lectures, and the help of a mentor assigned to each group, before presenting their case studies in November.

Could you be a future winner in the Young Engineer Programme?

Watch this space! The Young Engineer Programme is held biannually. To learn how you could become a winner, visit our YEP pages or email the Institute of Corrosion at admin@icorr.org.

Could your abstract win the Lionel Shreir Award?

The Corrosion Science Symposium is one of the premier events in the Institute of Corrosion’s calendar. This year, circumstances looked like causing it to be cancelled. However, we’ve discovered that coronavirus, lockdown and social distancing are no match for innovative minds, willpower, and technology.

It’s not going to be quite the same as in previous years. But we think you’ll like what we’ve done to ensure the Corrosion Science Symposium is as equally engaging and enlightening an event as it has always been, since it was first held in 1959. The key to its success, as ever, is those who attend: you.

What is the Corrosion Science Symposium?

The Corrosion Science Symposium (CSS) has traditionally been a two-day event held in a prestigious location befitting of its status. The 60th CSS was held as part of Electrochem 2019, hosted by the University of Strathclyde’s Innovation Centre in Glasgow.

This is an informal meeting of the Corrosion Science Division in which corrosion scientists, corrosion engineers and PhD students can gather, receive talks on corrosion, and discuss relevant corrosion issues.

Though it is an informal event, the CSS does include certain formalities. Presentations of some of the Institute of Corrosion Awards are made during the CSS including:

The UR Evans Award – the premier scientific award of ICorr

The Lionel Shreir Award – for the outstanding student talk given during the CSS

A new format for new normal times

With a more unpredictable future than at any time in our history, the CSS has been moved from a physical space to cyberspace this year. While the exact format is still being finalised, we’ve set the date and the outline format.

We’re going online, but, rather than what we believe would be an intense two days of sitting in front of a screen, we’re extending to three or four sessions during the week beginning 14th September 2020.

Nearer the date, we’ll announce the exact format, times, and technology we’ll be using. One thing is for certain, though – being online, the CSS will be more accessible this year than it has ever been. Consequently, we are expecting many more international students to take part, and that could lead to some exciting competition for the Lionel Shreir Award.

What is the Lionel Shreir Award?

Lionel Louis Shreir set incredibly high standards during a career spanning engineering, research and education. A recipient of the UR Evans Award in 1978, he is, perhaps, best remembered for his encouragement and mentorship of young authors attempting to write papers.

It is fitting, therefore, that the Lionel Shreir Award is presented to the student who gives the best presentation at the CSS, with criteria for the award being:

The originality and creativity of research

Knowledge of corrosion science and practice

Clarity of presentation and rapport with audience

Clarity when answering questions

Get involved with the 61st CSS

Last year, presentations at the CSS included:

David Kumar (University of Bristol), who gave an interesting overview of his work on hot water corrosion issues related to fusion reactor cooling circuits

Mariana Folena (University of Leeds) reported on her studies into the role of acetic acid in CO2 top of line corrosion using real-time corrosion measurements

Jessica Moulton (University of Manchester) gave a good overview into her recent studies modelling the behaviour of aluminium flakes in marine coatings using agar gels

Amelia Langley (University of Bath) – the eventual winner of the Lionel Shreir Award for her talk entitled ‘Chaotic copper corrosion: the influence of dissolved gas on the anodic passivation of copper in model seawater’

We are now accepting submissions of abstracts for this year’s CSS. All you need to do is to send a 200-word abstract of a 10-minute presentation/talk you’d like to give. We’ll review the abstracts, and select those that we believe can be coordinated into a cohesive programme of presentations through the week.

The winner of the Lionel Shreir Award is selected during the CSS, and we currently plan to present the award online on the final evening – though we must still figure out the logistics of doing so!

To enter your abstract, please send to j.a.wharton@soton.as.uk by Friday 17th July 2020. Those selected will then be contacted and asked to send an extended abstract by Friday 28th August.

Here at the Institute of Corrosion, we are also refusing to stand still. We understand that training and development is key to your personal success – especially during the coronavirus lockdown. The training and development initiatives that we have in place with our partners to help you with your CPD include many online options.

In this post, you’ll learn about another – a whole business week of hour-long webinars that are virtual and free, hosted by Phil Dent (Chair of the Marine Corrosion Forum) and Stephen Tate (Institute of Corrosion Aberdeen Branch).

Why a week of corrosion webinars?

The lockdown has disrupted almost all the training and events in the corrosion industry. Training providers and events organisers have had to cancel public events, and if these don’t take place then the industry is left with a void in the learning and sharing of information and innovation.

These webinars replace what would have been a full day event held in Aberdeen on 29th April.

When is the week of corrosion webinars?

The webinars will take place between April 27th and May 1st inclusive, with each webinar lasting an hour and starting at noon. Each is presented by an expert in their field. The time of the webinars has been selected to allow as many people to participate as possible.

How can I participate in the webinars?

Each webinar will follow the same format, and will be hosted on GoToMeeting:

Tell me more about the webinars

The Six Core Elements of Asset Management

Presented by Adam Lea-Bischinger CEng CMgr MEng CMRP Eur. Ing of the Institute of Asset Management (IAM), this presentation examines the critical work of the IAM and the development and rollout of ISO 55000 which defines terminology, requirements, and guidance for implementing, maintaining and improving an effective asset management system. The presentation includes examples of UK companies operating the ISO 55000 system.

Presented by Dr Prafull Sharma, an inventor and Chief Technology Officer of CorrosionRADAR Ltd., you’ll learn why corrosion under insulation (CUI) continues to be a big challenge for the asset integrity management of industrial facilities, and about the growing trend to remotely monitor corrosion in accessible locations using wireless connectivity and battery-powered devices. You’ll also learn about the latest innovative sensor system for monitoring CUI that has been developed by CorrosionRADAR.

Hot Topic: Cold Bonding, Using Epoxy Adhesives in Place of Hot Metal Welding

Presented by Henry Smith, UK Technical Supervisor of Belzona Polymerics Ltd, this webinar examines the options available to the offshore fabric maintenance engineer when it is not possible or preferable to weld, and discusses viable solutions using bonding or cold-welding technologies. You will benefit from references to case histories, from initial design to installation and ongoing inspection.

An Overview of the Corrosion of Metals in Seawater (And What to Look for)

Presented by Carol Powell BSc, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and independent consultant, this webinar provides a brief overview of the world of metals and their response to one of the most aggressive environments there is, giving examples of the types of corrosion which can occur and how to avoid them.

Exploring High Pressure CO2 Annular Corrosion in Flexible Pipes

Presented by Maria-Eleni Mitzithra PhD and Senior Project Leader for Corrosion at TWI Ltd., this webinar focuses on the work conducted by Mitzithra and tests carried out in a lab-scale test system designed and built at TWI Ltd. for the simulation of complex annulus environments, describing corrosion rates and the link to stability, structure, and thickness of the precipitated iron carbonate scaling.

A positive response with online training and events

This week of webinars replaces the MCF meeting in Aberdeen that was due to be held on 29th April. The Institute of Corrosion has partnered with MCF to offer these webinars as an alternative, and opened them to members and non-members of ICorr and MCF. You’ll be able to gain insight into the subjects that were to be presented and discussed at the Aberdeen meeting from home, work, or other location, and it’s free of charge.

Make 24th April a family day to remember

Friday 24th April is World Corrosion Awareness Day. This year, it will be a little different. We’re battling coronavirus, and many of you reading this will be in lockdown. You’ll be stuck indoors with little to do. By now, your children might be driving you insane.

This year’s World Corrosion Awareness Day is a great opportunity to relieve some of the tedium – and for households to do their bit in the battle against the devastating effects of corrosion.

Though the world is on hold, corrosion isn’t

Even when corrosion engineers aren’t locked in their homes, corrosion works to destroy our world. When we ignore corrosion control in infrastructure and transport, the result is often a human catastrophe. When bridges collapse and airplanes break apart, people lose their lives.

Eventually (hopefully soon), we will beat coronavirus. When the pandemic is a distant memory, corrosion will still be costing lives and money. Which is why engineers and scientists will continue to develop strategies, tools, and techniques to fight back against corrosion.

Here at the Institute of Corrosion, our aims include increasing awareness of corrosion, improving corrosion education, and sharing our expertise with the world. So, with World Corrosion Awareness Day in mind – and understanding how different the day will be for pretty much everyone on the planet this year – in this blog you’ll learn how to conduct a simple experiment to keep your kids amused and help them learn more about the world in which we live.

Amaze your children with a simple corrosion experiment

Here’s a little interactive experiment you can do with your kids to show the effects of corrosion, and just how quickly corrosion happens. You’ll need three clean jars, some water, some oil, some Epsom salts, and three clean steel nails. Here’s what to do:

Pour some Epsom salts into the first jar, and drop a nail onto the Epsom salts. Screw the lid onto the jar.

Pour some boiled water that has been cooled into the second jar. Drop a nail into the water, and then cover the water with oil. Put the lid on the jar.

Pour non-boiled water into the third jar, and drop a nail into it. Screw the lid on the jar.

Explain to your children that:

The first jar is air but no water. The Epsom salts draw any moisture out of the air in the jar, so it is very dry.

In the second jar, the nail is in water, but there is no air because the oil prevents the air from combining with the water. You boiled the water to remove as much air from it as possible.

In the third jar, water and air can get to the nail.

After a few days, your children will notice that the steel nails in the first two jars have not corroded. In the third jar, the steel nail will have started to rust. This shows that both air and water are necessary for steel to rust.

Corrosion-proof your home on World Corrosion Awareness Day

Now that you have taught your children how metal corrodes, it’s time to teach them how to prevent corrosion. This is your chance to keep them busy on World Corrosion Awareness Day (and beyond).

Your children know that it takes air and water for metal to corrode. Ask them what items around the home – including in your shed, your garden, and your driveway – are metal. Lead them through to the discovery that painted metal items are protected against air and water.

Ask your children if they want your garden benches and tables to corrode. Buckets and spades, garden fences and gates, door handles, and so on. Lead them on a hunt around the house and garden to find metal items that are not coated or painted, or that have been affected by rust.

Then, supervise your children as they clean and dry metal items, removing any corrosion, and painting items with anticorrosive paint.

This year’s World Corrosion Awareness Day is the perfect opportunity to teach your children about corrosion and get them involved in doing all those anticorrosion jobs you have been promising to do for months. Family time with a real end-product – beautifully painted metal items that are protected against corrosion.

The earlier we promote corrosion awareness, the more likely we are to reduce its human and financial cost. For advanced corrosion prevention training for corrosion professionals, contact the Institute of Corrosion to learn about our latest training initiatives – online and in person.

How to Benefit from Institute of Corrosion T&D Initiatives Online

With the coronavirus lockdown firmly in place in most parts of the world, businesses and people are adjusting to the new normal. One of the hardest hit business activities is training and development. This is bad for businesses and their employees. Of course, the safety of employees is critical but so, too, is the continual upskilling and development of those employees.

Given that your professional development is key to both your career and the future of your employer, what has been the response by businesses and how can you keep your career on track?

3 Training and Development Strategies Adopted by Businesses

Generally, we’ve seen three approaches to training and development during the lockdown:

1. Suspend/cancel training & development

Some businesses have drastically cut back or even cancelled all their training and development. They have done this to reduce costs. Some of these companies have laid off staff and are seeking to recruit experienced people to help them through this difficult period. (Staffing Future is the first company we know that has developed a not-for-profit recruitment website to match people to jobs that suit their skills specifically for COVID-19 jobs in the UK and the United States.)

2. Transition training & development as an online resource

Other businesses are helping their employees adjust to online working and encouraging continuation of CPD by transitioning existing training and development as an online resource. Such organisations are using working from home as an initiator to encourage upskilling toward a new normal that is likely to include more working from home – even after the lockdown has ended.

3. Increase accessibility to training & development

The third business model is increasing capacity and accessibility to training and development. The issue that many businesses have here is that their IT capability is already stretched. They simply don’t have the bandwidth to offer the desired depth and breadth of training and development to an army of employees wishing to connect via video.

Online Training & Development with the Institute of Corrosion

Organisations have been forced to prioritise their approach to training and development – for both what they believe is needed and what they can reasonably provide. This has necessarily meant that much training and development has been postponed or cancelled. The knock-on effect for individuals is that their own CPD – and therefore their career path – has been put on ice.

As a not-for-profit organisation committed to continuous development of knowledge and expertise within a supportive and inclusive framework (read about our core values here), the Institute of Corrosion is adjusting to the current lockdown environment at pace. We understand that it is imperative for industry professionals and members of the Institute of Corrosion to continue to develop professionally.

The Industrial Coating Applicator Training Scheme (ICATS) ICA module is now available online. You can learn the theoretical aspects of application and complete all the tests within the programme from the comfort of your own home during lockdown. For further information, please email Kevin Harold at Kev@paintel.co.uk.

One of our training partners, Corrodere, specialise in providing training packages developed with industry experts to ensure that users gain insight into basic corrosion, methods of surface treatment and application of protective coatings – with many of its courses available through online training. Contact Corrodere for more information.

We are working with other training providers to enable you to continue your professional development during lockdown. For example, IMechE Argyll Ruane are working on the delivery of an online classroom-style training programme. Further announcements will be made as soon as this is available, but please email argyllruane@imeche.org for more information.

We’re also in the process of transitioning the Fundamentals of Corrosion course for delivery online. Please, if you are interested in learning more and participating online, contact admin@icorr.org.

5 Benefits of Online Training

Because you are working from home or furloughed, you don’t need to put your professional development on hold. In fact, the online training and development initiatives we have already released and those that we are working on will help you develop a broader appeal as the world returns to work. The benefits of online training include:

More flexible – adaptable to different learning styles and flexible to fit your personal timetable

More convenient – take your course with you wherever you are, and balance between your work and free time

More comfortable – if you don’t like sitting in classrooms, you’ll love learning in the comfort of your own home

Improves career prospects – with more time on your hands and more flexibility to learn, taking online courses during the COVID-19 lockdown will demonstrate your commitment as well as provide valuable skills and knowledge that will help to develop your career

Make sure your career stays on track. Stay tuned to the Institute of Corrosion blog to learn of the latest developments in training and development in the corrosion industry.

The Real Cost of Poor Corrosion Prevention Practices Is Human

The financial cost of corrosion to the global economy is enormous, and estimated to be more than 3% of global GDP. Corrosion control is essential to reducing this cost, and is critical within infrastructure and transport. The economic benefits of longer life of transport and infrastructure assets are clear. Therefore, it is crucial that governments and businesses invest in corrosion control.

However, there is a far bigger reason why the Institute of Corrosion is leading the global corrosion conversation. People’s lives depend upon it.

Catastrophe is the real cost of infrastructure corrosion

In August 2015, the catastrophic effects of a lack of corrosion management was made abundantly clear in Italy. During a violent storm in Genoa, the Morandi Bridge collapsed. 43 people lost their lives. It is not as if the disaster could not have been foreseen. Its designer Riccardo Morandi warned of the risk of corrosion to the bridge all the way back in 1979. He said:

“Sooner or later, maybe in a few years, it will be necessary to resort to a treatment consisting of the removal of all traces of rust on the exposure of the reinforcements, to fill in the patches.”

Indeed, of all infrastructure, bridge collapses have been one of the most common examples of the cost of lack of corrosion control. Other notable bridge collapses include the following tragedies:

Silver Bridge, on a major highway in the United States, collapsed under the weight of rush hour traffic one afternoon in December 1967. A total of 75 vehicles crashed into the Ohio River. Nine people were seriously injured. 46 people were killed. The cause? Corrosion fatigue of the bridge’s suspension chain.

The pedestrian section of the Gokhale Bridge in Mumbai collapsed in July 2019 due to corrosion, killing one person and injuring four others.

Preliminary evidence points to corrosion as the cause for the sudden collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge in Taiwan. One of only two bifurcated single-arch bridges in the world – and only 20 years old – the 320-ton bridge killed six people when it fell in October 2019.

Inevitably, when corrosion control is ignored or mismanaged on highway bridges, buildings and other infrastructure, that infrastructure is weakened and lives are put at risk.

Corrosion causes tragedy in transport disasters

Corrosion is also a huge financial cost to the transport economy. Components that corrode must be repaired or replaced, and can cause breakdown and costly delays. Massive ships have enabled vast amounts of goods to be transported around the world, but they only last around 30 years before they must be scrapped due to the effects of corrosion.

Once more, though, the financial cost pales into insignificance when compared to the human cost of poor corrosion management. Examples include:

In October 1992, an El Al Boeing 747 crashed into an apartment block in Amsterdam killing more than 100 people. It had taken off only five minutes earlier. Corroded components were found to be the culprit, causing an engine and its pylon to separate from the wing. This engine hit a second engine, causing it to separate, too.

Join the corrosion control conversation

The first of our core values is Trust and Respect. The Institute of Corrosion is an independent professional body, trusted and respected by the public with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of corrosion on our infrastructure.

It is crucial that we encourage the innovation that enables greater sustainability of our infrastructure and transport. Developments in corrosion science, prevention and management should reduce (and, eventually, eliminate) the cost of corrosion to society.

To this end, we have designed this year’s Corrosion Engineering Division (CED) Working Day around corrosion control in transport and infrastructure. Held on 29th April 2020, only five days after Worldwide Corrosion Awareness Day, the original venue could not have been more appropriate – the meeting was to be held at the National Railway Museum, York. However, as you know, world events have overtaken us this year. Consequently, we are now holding the Working Day online.

It remains a fantastic opportunity to network with other professionals from different industry sectors (albeit through cyberspace and not face-to-face) and to learn about some of the latest developments in the field of corrosion control in a variety of transport and infrastructure applications across diverse industries.

This full day event will now be free. We have an excellent group of speakers lined up, including Phillip Watkinson (Corrocoat), Chris Atkins (Mott MacDonald), Steve Paterson (Arbeadie Consultants), Cliff Harris and Clive Harrison (Jacobs), and Pablo Merino (CLH Pipeline Systems). The series of lectures will cover:

If you are interested in taking part, please send an email to admin@icorr.org by 24th April. In return we will send you a link to be able to join the meeting. Please also indicate which working group discussion you would like to join in the afternoon.